The Beast Below
by Spirit 0f Chaos
Summary: Piper and Nate have seen all manner of extraordinary, weird, and downright horrifying things in the Commonwealth. Ghouls, Synths, even mutated black bears. However, no encounter, no fight, could prepare either of them from what they would find below. Rated for language and violence.


"Jackpot!" Piper cried out, her head stuck deep in the remains of a pile of school desks, paying no heed to the ominous shift it made as she rummaged around.

Nate glanced over his shoulder in her direction. "Find something good?"

"Yep." She emerged, a wide grin on her ink-streaked face. "A full box of Fancy Lad Snack Cakes. We're eating good tonight."

The Pre-War veteran rolled his eyes and made a face. "A box of snack cakes that are as old as I am and twice as filled with preservatives? I'll pass, thanks."

"Aw c'mon Blue!" Piper whined and brushed off the spot on the bench next to him, taking a seat. "You ate these things all the time before the bombs, right?"

"Yeah, but then they were kept in nice, clean homes and not buried under two centuries worth of ash and radioactive crap."

Piper smirked and nudged his shoulder. "You know if you think about it, A Vault is nice and clean and is buried for two centuries under ash and radioactive crap…"

"This conversation is over." Nate suddenly turned away from Piper as she laughed and popped open the tab of the snack cake box. A short while later he had started a fire out of some scrapped desks and was slowly roasting Mirelurk meat while Piper picked through the best of the cakes.

"So this is what a Pre-War school looked like?" She commented, tossing aside the empty carton.

"Well aside from how decimated it is, yeah, pretty much. I was actually thinking about sending Shaun to this school…" His voice petered off slightly near the end but he managed to finish the sentence.

Piper glanced over at him but decided to not mention it. "So… what did they teach in these schools anyways? What did Pre-War kids learn?"

Nate passed over a hunk of meat and started cutting into his own serving. "All sorts of stuff… math, English, history… all of it seems kind of pointless now."

"I don't know. As a reporter I use English quite a bit, and I'd be hard pressed to make a living if no one knew how to read." Piper stuck her fork in the tough meat and swore when it broke. "We still have spares right?"

Nate dug into his pack and pulled out an extra fork. "Here. It's still relatively clean."

She accepted the utensil and resumed her attempts to eat the slab of meat. "You're telling me you'll eat this crap but you won't eat those snack cakes?"

"I like it." He said around the food in his mouth. "I loved seafood before the bombs fell. Now this is the best I can do." He swallowed. "Tastes like crab. I think it does anyways."

Piper opened her mouth to make a smart reply but was interrupted by a sudden noise from around the corner. "Did you…?"

"Yeah, I heard it too." Nate set down his plate and leaned over to pick up his customized hunting rifle at his feet. "Want to check it out?"

"Right behind you." Piper sprung to her feet and pulled the .44 out from her coat pocket, a prize won from the stash of a Gunner outpost and fine-tuned by her companion. Ammo was hard to find for such a gun, but Piper prided herself on how much she had learned about marksmanship over the past few weeks. She rarely missed.

The pair crept over to where the destroyed wall ended and scanned the surrounding area. "I think it came from over there." Piper nodded her head to indicate the sudden drop off to their left. Nate glanced at the map generated by his Pip-Boy and read the small label- Old Gullet Sinkhole.

"Old Gullet Sinkhole." Piper read aloud over his shoulder. "That sounds ominous."

"Yeah, it does. Stick close, ok?" Nate brought his firearm to bear and turned the corner, scanning the destroyed ruins carefully for any signs of life.

"What do you think is out here?" Piper hissed softly over her shoulder. "Raiders? Ghouls?" She shivered, an uncomfortable tingle running down her spine. "God I hope it's not ghouls."

Nate rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. "Piper you're going to scare whatever it is off. Or attract it to us."

"Sorry!"

The duo reached the crest of the hill and stopped. Dropping to a crouch, Nate stealthily moved forward and peeked over the edge of the sudden drop off. "I don't see anything…" After fidgeting for a moment, he drew the scope up to his eye and swept the bottom of the gullet. "Looks clear to me, but knowing this God-forsaken place there's no way that's true."

"True." Piper stifled a giggle and nudged his boot. "But I mean come on- we go into God-forsaken, infested buildings every day. Aren't we at least going to check it out?"

"'Course we are." Nate replied matter-of-factly and lowered his rifle. "But we're not getting down there from here. We're going to have to find another way down."

"Hmm…" Piper looked up and around the edge of the sinkhole. "Hey look over there- I think I see a path down."

Following her gaze he noticed the narrow switchback. "Yeah that looks like it would work, but it's on the other side of the hole." His gaze drifted to the right. "Wait, there! That building on the side… I bet we could get down from there."

Piper looked at the building and at the back of his head. "Blue are you really going to go for the totally unsafe, collapsed building instead of the marginally safer path just to save maybe a quarter mile of walking?"

"If it's only marginally safer then I don't see the point in hiking the rest of the way." Slinging his weapon over his shoulder, Nate stood up and offered a hand to Piper.

She accepted the hand and stood. "Fine, we'll do it your way. But if I break a leg trying to make it down then I'm going to hold it over you until the day we die."

"Deal." Nate snickered and they started walking around the edge of the sinkhole. "Just remember though, you still owe me for the Robot Disposal Site."

"Hey you were the one who activated that stupid thing without telling me!"

"What the hell were you doing messing with a Securitron anyways?!"

"Oh I don't know, maybe scavenging ammo? Sorry if I'm working to keep us alive when you're playing too busy trying to figure out how to paint flames on your toys!" Piper punched his shoulder.

"I didn't hear you complaining when you got your "flaming knife of ultimate death"." Nate scoffed and rubbed his shoulder.

"Bite me." Piper huffed and crossed her arms. "Don't ask me for any ammo the next time you run- BLUE!"

"I've got you!" Nate dove forward and caught her wrist as the rock she trusted her weight to shifted suddenly, causing her to fall back into the gulley. Grunting as the loose rock and dirt ground into his face, he braced his shoulder and threw his second arm down to get a better grip on her wrist. "Hang on Piper!"

Panting heavily, she looked down and back up at him, the panic draining from her eyes. "Good catch, Blue." She said shakily, trying to force a smile.

"Well you know me Piper." He smiled back, straining against her weight. "Here to catch you when you fall."

She laughed again, trying to gain purchase on the slippery slope with her feet. "Can't find a better line?"

"Uh, yeah, here's one…" he grunted and adjusted his grip on her slippery leather gloves. "I kind of have to let you go."

"What?!"

"Don't worry, just fall and you'll land on a nearby platform. It's just like flying! Except, you know… not."

"Blue if you drop me I swear to God…"

"Sorry Piper. Love you!" He smiled sheepishly and let go.

"You son of a bi-!" Piper squealed as she started to fall and landed a second later on a broken wall. Groaning and rubbing the arm she landed on, she looked up at the apologetic face staring back down at her. "Blue you better hope this arm is broken, otherwise I am going to BEAT YOUR ASS!"

"Sorry Piper. I'm going to make my way down- here, take this stimpack in the meantime. I'll be right back!" He tossed the syringe down and disappeared.

Grumbling angrily to herself, Piper injected the stimpack into her shoulder and rolled it a few times. It didn't feel broken, which she supposed was fortunate. A quick glance around her showed that she was surrounded on all sides by the walls of the sinkhole and collapsed building. A quick attempt to scale the wall proved that the soil was too loose to get purchase on. Piper opened her mouth to swear but stopped when she noticed that although the dirt had stopped shifting, the soft noise had not stopped.

The reporter drew her pistol again and glanced out into the sinkhole through where the roof of the building had fallen away. "Blue?" She hissed, anger temporarily forgotten. "Is that you?" She took one step outside the building and gasped in horror.

Right outside the building stood a massive creature covered in rough, filthy scales that were occasionally broken up with small horns and outcroppings of bones. The beast easily stood ten feet eleven feet tall, towering over Piper's diminutive form. Wickedly sharp, bloodstained claws scraped the dirt at its feet, and a few feet away Piper spotted the remains of a horribly mutilated Brahmin, bloated in the Wasteland sun. Turning slightly, Piper caught sight of the monster's face- a long snout snapped open and shut, bits of spittle and gore hanging from the short fangs filling its mouth. Beady yellow eyes swept the ground around it, hoping to possibly find a scrap of meat that had escaped from its feasting. Piper caught a whiff of its breath and covered her mouth and nose, eyes watering.

The shock of discovering the Deathclaw finally expired and a sharp, nonsensical whimper escaped her lips before she could stop it. Instantly the monster twitched and turned to spot the small human standing behind it. Dropping the bone in its claw, it turned and roared loudly, claws emerging with an ominous, wet unsheathing noise. Piper screamed and fired wildly into its face, backpedaling as fast as she could into the alcove. The Deathclaw leapt after her, swiping and opening four long gashes along her side. Screaming again in pain, Piper stumbled back into the makeshift cave, intense pain shooting up her side and all sensation suddenly gone in her legs. Still rapidly pumping the trigger to her gun even though it had been emptied long before, Piper screeched through her the hot tears streaming down her face. "BLUE!"

A loud crack echoed through the gulley and the Deathclaw's head jerked forward. "OVER HERE YOU MUTATED SON OF A BITCH!" Nate's voice followed the crack of his rifle, and the Deathclaw turned to look at the source of the annoyance. Slamming the bolt forward to chamber another round, Nate waved his hands in the air and brought his rifle to bear again. "A LOT MORE MEAT ON THIS HUMAN! COME AND GET IT!" The rifle kicked again and the round found its home in between the monster's eyes. Roaring in pain, it surged forward towards the newcomer, leaping forward on both arms and legs.

Unable to resist, Piper forced her eyes open as she watched the abomination charge her companion. Gritting her teeth, she opened the cylinder of her revolver and started attempting to load it with shaking hands in case that thing gained the upper hand on him.

Nate waited until the last moment and threw himself aside at the last minute, barely missing the claws swung to decapitate him. The rifle fell to his feet and he pulled the sawed off combat shotgun out of his thigh holster. Before the creature could turn and retaliate, two shells were pumped into its arm and one into the side of its belly. The Deathclaw roared again and caught Nate with a brutal back-handed swipe, sending the Sole Survivor flying down the path. Piper involuntarily cried out only to double over coughing at the effort. By the time she had looked up again, he had shakily gotten to his feet, holding his shotgun up with a single arm. Another arm scrambled to pull something out from his pocket. One, two, three more shells were fired before the chamber locked open, empty. The abomination only shook its head and snorted, sensing its prey was nearing the end of its energy.

Piper tried to lift her weapon, but she couldn't fire without risking hitting Nate. Unable to look away, she saw the Deathclaw pause for a moment before it launched forward in an impossibly fast pounce. As soon as it moved, Nate wrested free the object from his pack and jammed it between its horns, falling backwards and under its leap at the same time. Carried by its momentum, it slammed into the far wall underneath the waterfall. It picked itself up, shaking its head and turning with a snarl, and Piper finally saw what Nate had jammed between its horns- a rigged Super Mutant Suicider Mini-Nuke.

The Deathclaw roared while Nate hit the detonator, and Piper's world was suddenly dark.

========================================\^/==================================

Piper groaned and tilted her head back against the wall, bringing a hand up to her face. Cracking her eyes open, she saw it was streaked with grime but thankfully no blood. Suddenly a fresh stab of pain went up her side and she groaned, clutching the gashes in her side. She rifled through her pack for a few seconds, hoping to find a spare stimpack or at least some Med-Ex, but came up empty.

A sudden noise caused Piper to look up sharply, horrifying images of the Deathclaw flashing through her brain. After a few seconds passed with no other noises, she grunted and started pushing herself upright, climbing on what was left of the building's wall. She took a few shaky steps forward to test her balance and quickly grabbed on the edge of the ruin to stop herself from falling. Panting through clenched teeth, she forced herself to keep moving forward, looking around the small canyon. "Blue?" She hissed. "Blue where are you?"

The formerly barren gulley floor was now scorched and pockmarked. A huge crater had been carved in the side of the cave under the waterfall; it was rapidly being turned into a small lake as she watched. "Blue." She whispered hoarsely and took a step forward. Her foot hit something and she looked down to see a long claw with a bloody stump where it should have met with a wrist. Despite her situation, she couldn't help but smile. "'S what you get you son of a bitch." She murmured.

Piper looked up and saw the charred remains of a shotgun laying at the edge of the small pond. All pain and monsters forgotten, Piper lurched forward, falling to her knees at the edge of the pond. Her outstretched palm landed on the receiver and instantly recoiled, scorched on the hot metal. The shotgun was knocked away and fell into the water where suddenly it disappeared. "What the…?" Piper's brow furrowed as she studied the water. After a moment she picked up a scrap of wood from the bank and tossed it in the pond. After a moment the sliver of wood bobbed and disappeared under the surface.

"You've got to be kidding me." Piper moaned and ran a hand over her face. She hated the water. Anything more than a glass or bathtub completely freaked her out. And now she was about to go into a body of water that apparently sucked things out of sight.

"Fuck it." Piper took a deep breath and let herself fall headfirst into the water. It rushed over her head and body, exerting pressure on every inch of her form. She resisted the urge to open her mouth and gasp for air. The current rushed around her, tossing her head over heels, and finally an odd sensation rushed over her and she found herself falling until she splashed in a colder body of water.

Spluttering and coughing, Piper dragged herself to shore and shivered. "Never again." She sneezed. "I don't ever want to see water again as long as I live."

"Without water that won't be very long then." A hoarse voice whispered from a few feet away.

"Blue!" Piper cried out and tripped over a rock, falling right next to the injured Vault Dweller. "You crazy idiot, what were you thinking?!"

"That we were stuck in a canyon with a mutated monster of death." Nate coughed wetly, weakly reaching for his pack a few feet away. "Stimpack…"

Piper numbly grabbed and opened the pack, hurriedly rummaging around for the small syringe. "Ok… ok… here! Here, I've got it!" Pulling open his jumpsuit, she fumbled with the needle and dropped it. "Sorry!"

A second later Nate sighed with relief, feeling the cocktail start to pump through his veins, soothing his nerves and speeding the repair process of his body. "That's the stuff…"

Piper injected a second stimpack into herself and settled next to him, feeling the sweet relief the healing stim provided. "Blue… you… are an asshole." She leaned over and punched his shoulder.

"Ow, what?!" Nate flinched and propped himself on his elbows.

"You dropped me!"

"I couldn't hold you!"

"You dropped me and then you fought that… that thing!" She huffed and the angry note in her voice vanished along with the anger in her expression, replaced by tender concern. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Nate prepared a sharp reply when he noticed her expression. "You didn't think I was just going to let that thing after you, did you?"

She snickered and pushed him, but much more gently than before, more of a caress than anything else. "You're determined to die a softie aren't you?"

"Of course." He smiled.

The reporter shook her head and leaned down, kissing him tenderly on the cheek. "So we even now?"

"Yeah." He grunted and pulled two Nuka Colas out of his pack. "Next Wasteland atrocity of nature is all yours. Deal?"

She giggled and accepted the drink. "Deal."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Story time! ….again…. so this all actually happened to me in-game. I wasn't traveling with Piper at the time, but I did fall through the building, find a Deathclaw at the bottom, and battle it by hiding in the building and emptying a pistol in its face. Only real difference is instead of using a badass move with a mini nuke, I fired a fully charged six-crank laser musket in his face when he lunged at me. Still pretty badass, in my opinion.

And now for a super important public service announcement! Listen up children, this stuff's important!

Listen up kiddos, never forget the importance of periodic story reviewing. Chapter book, one shot, smutty romance, I don't care which. If fanfiction isn't getting reviewed, the only internet asshole it's going to entertain is people who aren't satisfied with people improving their writing skills. So be smart, click that button and make reviews whenever you can.

Until next time, this is loveofthegame117, OWWWW! And you're reading his Fallout 4 fanfiction! Bringing you the M!SSxPiper shipping, no matter how much you want M1SSxValentine.


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